Curtis Sturdivant, 42

Curtis Sturdivant quoted Scripture when he noticed someone feeling low. He loved wearing designer brands. He would always text his mother photos of the food he was eating.

“He never met a stranger,” Lorraine Sturdivant said.

Curtis was from Charlotte, North Carolina. He visited Arizona last July for his job as a truck driver, stopping at the Wild Horse Pass Casino for the night, according to an autopsy report from the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.

A jogger found Sturdivant unresponsive on a trail near the resort’s golf course, “lying in the dirt under a tree.” He was pronounced dead at 3:58 p.m. on July 12, 2016, when emergency services arrived. The high temperature that day for Phoenix was 110 degrees. He was 42.

The medical examiner later ruled contributing causes “consistent with dehydration and hyperthermia” in Sturdivant’s death. The cause was listed as acute methamphetamine intoxication. Doctors warn that meth and other stimulants can increase the body’s temperature.

Lorraine remembers how thoughtful her son was, how he always remembered family members’ birthdays and would send gifts from the road.

“He was a fun guy,” she said.

Detectives came to her door last July to tell her that her son had died 2,000 miles away, in Arizona. She did not want to believe what they were telling her. She yelled. She weeped. She screamed.

“I really miss my son,” she said. “I thank the lord for the time he was here with me.”